1804: Formal ceremonies transferring the Louisiana Purchase from France to the U.S. takes place in St. Louis.

1879: Excitement was raging through Mandan, as General Rosser granted permits for the occupancy of lots. More than a dozen buildings were in the progress of being erected, and Mandan was promising to be a city of immediate importance.

1880: The railroad reaches Grand Forks. The first train to roll through was a combination of a work and immigrant train.

– After nearly a month of receiving no mail in the city, a team brought in twenty passengers and two tons of letter mail, with another three tons still waiting, from a blockaded train, which was 80 miles east of town. While some snow had melted, it was still on the track and had to be scooped away. 112 men were busy trying to clear the track, but were able to only clear two miles a day. With provisions running short, and no flour in the city, the government was buy shipping supplies from Fort Lincoln.

1885: Governor Pierce vetoed the bill that would remove the territorial capital from Bismarck to Pierre.

1887: Despite using dynamite to try to free up the river at Sibley Island, the Missouri was still over six miles in width, with the gorge at the island holding water to its highest mark. A rescue party was sent out to save a settler, who had been trapped on top of his house, but to little avail. Other families have also been found on top of their houses, or even up in trees. Causing the situation to worsen, a snowstorm prevailed, while a bear had also been seen on the ice.

The city of Mandan was inundated with water, as it ran through the streets, and flooding homes up to the second story. Fears that the city of Mandan would be annihilated, if the gorge broke at Sibley, was running through the city.

The high trestle of the Northern Pacific railroad was also wrecked in the flooding. But with six miles of solid ice wedged into the river, and piling up to thirty feet, there was little hope things would change in the next several days.

1894: John Henselman, a 12-year-old boy, who had lost a leg while playing in the railroad yards at Sanborn five years previously, was awarded $4,000 in damages against the Northern Pacific. The initial suit was $20,000

1902: Reports of loss began to come in after a blizzard. Hundreds of sheep and cattle were found frozen, while two herders had perished.

1907: Former mayor of Bismarck, and then president of the City Council and county commissioner, E.G. Patterson, was arrested on charges of running a blind pig. The issue after two waitresses,working at the Patterson hotel, made complaints. The charges made many legislators unhappy, as they had just stopped at the hotel during the legislative session that had recently closed.

1936: Howard Lucas, 18, was sentenced to life imprisonment after pleading guilty to first degree murder in the slaying of L.G. Knowlen, who was a Bismarck laborer. While Lucas first claimed he had shot Knowlen in self-defense, after getting into an argument over a $12 board and room bill, he later admitted to shooting Knowlen as he was sleeping.

1937: R.E. Anderson, 32, a North Dakota correspondent for the Associated Press, died in the hospital after receiving injuries he suffered when his automobile overturned.

1939: North Dakota’s favorite alcoholic beverage, “spiked beer,” was put on the spot during the session of the state’s legislature. Spiked beer, which was near beer spiked with grain alcohol, was disrupting the liquor market, state officials argued.

1948: With the nation facing an oil shortage, an authority on natural resources said that the great lignite deposits in the state could be used to help relieve the nations fuel shortage. In the Dakotas, and Montana, 915,000,000,000 tons of lignite were said to exist.